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OCD / Hardacre / Organised Minion Method


slimjim

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Tried this at the weekend.

I am pretty confident it made the heat last a LOT longer. Although without a proper side by side test, I doubt I could prove it.
Takes a lot less time than you think.

Not sure if it should be called the OCD method or not. Although I prefer "The Hardacre Method" ... obviously! (My surname)

Pretty much the same as the Minon method but much more organised, obviously.
This setup, including a 1/4 of a chimney was a bag and a half of Aussie Beads.

Lit at 10:30am, cooked a small Brisket, full rack of Pork ribs, four chicken breasts, four large jacket potatoes and a Ronnie Sunshine full of pit beans.
At 10:30pm it was still RED HOT.
At 9:30am the NEXT morning, it was still giving off heat.

 

47cm Webber Smoky Mountain

Layer One - 3/4 bag of Aussie Beads
Actually takes less time to do then you think. Rubber gloves on, took me about 10 mins to do both layers.
59b66df3257e4_OCD_-6.thumb.jpg.624da5ad1a335869bcc3faff7f42816f.jpg

Layer Two - 1/2 bag of Aussie Beads
Could have mirrored the bottom layer but I felt like I was using too much fuel.
Honestly I think I may have been able to get away with just the ONE layer (see lower down for the burn rate)
59b66dff2b42c_OCD_-5.thumb.jpg.49937c7eb141e046fd65e140e44549d3.jpg

Chimney - 1/4  full

59b66dfb396f1_OCD_-4.thumb.jpg.6a882959c22f9d5cd16e024c793206ba.jpg

Tip it on.... and wait about 30-40 mins for it to 'catch' properly.

Lots of food cooking
Ribs and chicken on the top Grill
Brisket on the lower Grill
Ronnie Sunshine full of Pit Beans in the water Pan
Foil wrapped Jacket Potatoes in the fire itself.

59b66df75c7b2_OCD_-3.thumb.jpg.bbbc17c1cc0e80ccf95ef78b21ee5bbb.jpg

59b66e0681178_OCD_-2.thumb.jpg.2c8de970b6e1cd1b2e5967717c1f7b18.jpg

Temps were about 250-270 the whole time.
Pushing up slightly to 290 at the end to finish off the ribs and chicken.

This lot came off at 7:00pm...

At 10:30pm it was all STILL red hot!!!!

59b66e0265cd1_OCD_-1.thumb.jpg.806ef393666c861fa334075d38f47613.jpg

Went to clean everything up at 9:30am the next day and 1/3 of the beads were STILL hot enough to cook on! (Directly anyway)

Is this a new method? or have I just reinvented the wheel? 9_9

Edited by slimjim
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Great post Jim - Yes it is certainly an OCD version of the Minion - LOL

One of the problems a lot of people have is that they are not patient enough when it comes to getting their smokers up to temperature. Let it take its time and it will reward you with much longer smokes. I usually allow an hour to get my ProQ up to temperature although it is usually ready within about 45 minutes. At a couple of the UK smokers meets I saw people starting to get concerned when they were not at cooking temperature within 20 minutes and were blowing on the coals or adding another half a lit chimney. They are then surprised when they then had a problem keeping the temperature at the required cooking temperature without overshooting. :hit: 

I have done some temperature logging trials with this method and it is amazing how long you can cook on a very small amount of fuel

Callow using 2 Kg Heat beads - Over 8 hours of cooking time

59b6b2778e07c_CallowTemperatureLogCropped.thumb.jpg.70e3152b388676d0ac864d1a03a268cf.jpg

Weber Kettle using 1.5 Kg Heat Beads - 6-7 hours of cooking time

59b6b61cbe0a6_HeatBeadsProfileinWeberKettle.thumb.png.5dfc717582e7e2de462543289733dc34.png

 

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57 minutes ago, Wade said:

Great post Jim - Yes it is certainly an OCD version of the Minion - LOL

One of the problems a lot of people have is that they are not patient enough when it comes to getting their smokers up to temperature. Let it take its time and it will reward you with much longer smokes. I usually allow an hour to get my ProQ up to temperature although it is usually ready within about 45 minutes. At a couple of the UK smokers meets I saw people starting to get concerned when they were not at cooking temperature within 20 minutes and were blowing on the coals or adding another half a lit chimney. They are then surprised when they then had a problem keeping the temperature at the required cooking temperature without overshooting. :hit: 

I have done some temperature logging trials with this method and it is amazing how long you can cook on a very small amount of fuel

Callow using 2 Kg Heat beads - Over 8 hours of cooking time

59b6b2778e07c_CallowTemperatureLogCropped.thumb.jpg.70e3152b388676d0ac864d1a03a268cf.jpg

Weber Kettle using 1.5 Kg Heat Beads - 6-7 hours of cooking time

59b6b61cbe0a6_HeatBeadsProfileinWeberKettle.thumb.png.5dfc717582e7e2de462543289733dc34.png

 

Wade, is this how you set a Weber 57cm up with the "Minion Method"?

 

image.thumb.jpeg.109eccbc5997808606b76e22d8c96c87.jpeg

 

On a serious note, can we have one of your Tutorials for this in the Methods Section?

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More time for smoking I hope @Wade ...?
The world needs more of your smokes!

I have been very VERY lucky to sample all sorts of goodies from this Magician. Nuts, Cheese, Salmon, all sorts of meat. Plus the infamous "Best Pit Beans In The World" .....
All amazing, tasty yet perfectly balanced flavours. :x

Edited by slimjim
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30 minutes ago, Wade said:

The place... not in the slightest :D - except for a few of the people :thumb1:

I can imagine, there's a lot that I won't miss when I leave here (which will probably be in about 30 years time...xD)

 

23 minutes ago, slimjim said:

More time for smoking I hope @Wade ...?
The world needs more of your smokes!

I have been very VERY lucky to sample all sorts of goodies from this Magician. Nuts, Cheese, Salmon, all sorts of meat. Plus the infamous "Best Pit Beans In The World" .....
All amazing, tasty yet perfectly balanced flavours. :x

Amen to that!!  Wade is the person that got me into this world of BBQ/smoking etc by bringing in a few sample of bacon and ribs and the like!! :thumb1:

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On 12/09/2017 at 9:25 AM, valve90210 said:

I can imagine, there's a lot that I won't miss when I leave here (which will probably be in about 30 years time...xD)

 

Amen to that!!  Wade is the person that got me into this world of BBQ/smoking etc by bringing in a few sample of bacon and ribs and the like!! :thumb1:

You guys sound like police officers  ....   LOL :)

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/11/2017 at 6:49 PM, Wade said:

Rather than piece together old photos I will put together a new guide over the next couple of days if the weather stays fine. I can do this now I am retired - :D

Hey Wade

Interested to know how you do this in a kettle, I've been using the snake method for longer smokes, but interested in other options.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 years later...

I think that during one of the forum software updates they changed the way that the photos were stored. I am sorry that some of the old photos are no longer available but it is something that is out of our control. If you have any in particular you are interested in then we can try to upload them again (or similar). Or we can restart a new thread.

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